


Roses in the Winter

by thenthekneehits



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Cohabitation, M/M, Relationship Problems, Snowboarding, Vacation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:55:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4906303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenthekneehits/pseuds/thenthekneehits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett and Link were inexplicably drifting apart, so Rhett came up with a grand plan to make things right again. The two men were off to the Alps — but there would be no butt-eating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 0 & Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes inspiration from too many episodes (and various other things) to count, but the main one is [GMMore #578](https://youtu.be/Y3j_LYXXbmw?t=422), where Link mentions eating butts in the Alps.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhett is confused about complementary colors.

"You know, like how old married couples go-"

"I hate it when you compare us to an old married couple."

"When they go on a trip together to refresh their romance. Like that, but us and bromance."

"We don't have a _bromance_. I hate you most of the time. Like right now."

"Which is exactly why we need to go! Old married couples hate each other. Then they go on a trip and they love each other again."

"What, so you're saying you hate me?"

"No! I love you!" Rhett grimaced over having to say the words and then let out a sigh. "Link, you keep saying you hate me and I know I keep getting mad at you. But you mean a lot to me, alright, brother? We need to make a conscious effort to get out of this...this phase." When Link stayed quiet, Rhett added, "Please, brother," despite how awkward he felt about using the b-word twice in a row after so long of not having said it at all. It'd began to taste like dirt in his mouth a while back already.

"Three days?" Link bargained.

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks?!" Link's voice rose to a scream. "Five days at most!"

"Ten."

"Seven?"

"Ten days, Link. Ten."

"What are we gonna do for _ten days_?"

"Snowboard. Learn to be nice to each other again."

"Can't we do it here?"

"We've tried. What's this been going on for, huh? Two months? I'm getting scared, Link. It's never been this bad before."

"I keep trying but every time I do, you get pissed about something and ruin it."

Rhett knew that bringing up the times that Link pushed away _his_ efforts would only cause more tension, so for once he gritted his mouth shut and thought of something else to say. His words felt forced and garbled as he pushed out, "I thought of a plan. We should...should try to do some things we did as kids. To, uh, remember and...yeah, I figured it could help us. Therapy of a sort. And also just having fun together. Not think about work at all. But of course this is also important for work because it's beginning to affect it. The only thing we've done just for fun together for ages is surfing and we never go anymore. We're becoming colleagues, not friends. I need my best friend."

Despite the messy portrayal of his point, through who knows what magic, Rhett managed to get Link to agree to go on a ten day vacation to the Alps.

***

The idea of vacationing together had spawned in Rhett's mind after the discussion with Sorted Food in an Ear Biscuit. The guys had talked about how they made sure to stay in touch with their friends by going on trips together every now and then.

Link always insisted on the two of them vacationing apart, so Rhett could not recall a time of any recent sort where they spent an extended amount of time together in a non-work-related way. Link said that being apart for a few weeks twice a year was good for them, healthy for their relationship, but Rhett wasn't too sure about that. He missed Link every time, he was man enough to admit that. He enjoyed getting to spend time with his kids, but why did he need to not see Link? At all? Not getting to contact the man whatsoever made Rhett anxious — he needed to vent at someone, both about negative and positive things, and most importantly about _ideas_ — and he never managed to enjoy the final week of his time off because he was becoming grouchy and kept waiting for his vacation to end.

Not that he told Link. He tried to, once, but then he began to feel clingy, like his emotions were or would come off as stronger than they strictly should be, and he didn't want Link to find out about that. He felt self-conscious about how strongly he felt for Link, every now and again. He covered it up with flippant words, just like he did whenever Link began to gush about how much he looked forward to not seeing Rhett's face or how nice it had been to not see Rhett's face.

Rhett had occasionally suggested little vacations to Link, but the man had never bitten. It wasn't easy for them to take time off work now that they had a daily show, and Rhett understood that Link needed to spend what little they could get with his family. Rhett, however, didn't understand why they had to full-on stay away from each other in the process.

And yes, he wasn't comfortable with discussing that with Link. Communication issues seemed to be bothering their relationship lately. Rhett knew that was the cause of their problems and yet he couldn't bring himself to say certain things that he maybe should say, either for his own sake or then Link's.

Whenever he considered this, he was reminded of the communication method they had devised as kids — well, it had most likely been Link that came up with it. The boy sitting on the big rock talked about whatever he wanted to talk about, and the one on the small rock could only ask questions. It had worked well for them and molded them into good listeners. Rhett had begun to feel like they could use a rehash of that lesson. It was the first spark of the idea of revisiting things the two of them had done when they were young, and the more things Rhett thought of, the more he felt like they were something the two men needed at this point in their lives — the point at which they were (Rhett was almost afraid to think it) _beginning to view each other as work_.

So Rhett ended up combining things. A vacation together, aka forced quality time between best friends, not colleagues, and revisiting their childhood behavior. He made up a list, even. He wanted them to try and do everything during the vacation.

_1\. Talk with the rock system_  
_2\. Drive aimlessly and blast the radio_  
_3\. Wrestle_  
_4\. Look at porn_  


(That one made Rhett's insides swirl a little.)

_5\. Sleep in bunk beds_  
_6\. Get drunk outdoors_  
_7\. Jam without a cause_  
_8\. Do something stupid and dangerous on impulse_  
_9\. Listen to Merle Haggard for hours_  
_10\. Redo the blood oath_

Deciding on the place to travel to was easy enough. Both of them had loved snowboarding, despite the accidents they had gotten into and the fact that they weren't too great at it. It was a sport for young and reckless people, and that was exactly what they needed to re-experience. And there was no better place for snowboarding than the Alps. It was a place far from home, almost like a fantasy really, so unrealistically distant (yet strangely reachable) that Rhett felt like it was a place where they could forget their current selves and the lives they now led. If they couldn't remember who they were to each other there, Rhett didn't know where they could. Even their hometown was now cluttered with memories of countless holidays spent apart.

***

On the plane Link immediately fell asleep. Seeing the man's mouth predictably flop open made Rhett feel almost possessive, because it was just another piece of proof of how well he knew his friend. He figured it would be good to have Link to himself for a while, to clear emotions like that out. He'd take all he could now that he had the chance, so he unabashedly stared at his defenseless traveling companion for a large portion of the flight, dozing off occasionally.

***

Rhett was surprised that Link had allowed him to plan everything for the trip with minimum questions, but less surprised about the man's resulting wariness and inability to believe that Rhett had actually sorted everything out.

"What's the cabin like? It's a cabin, right? You'd definitely get a cabin, not a hotel. It better have electricity and running water, and heating too. I'm not in the mood to mess around with firewood for ten days."

"It's got everything," Rhett assured him.

The drive from Zürich Airport to the ski resort was two hours long, but Rhett had heard that the resort was one of The Alps' best. Well, it's what he'd googled, anyway.

"The rental car was a good idea," Link noted, fingers tapping on the wheel and eyes flicking to the GPS more often than necessary.

That was the biggest compliment Rhett had received from the guy in a while. The only compliment he'd received from him in a while, really. When he realized this, his eyes began to moisten and he quickly looked out the window, feeling humiliated. Within a few quick blinks, however, he already felt better — this meant progress. They were healing.

He wanted to stay on the upward curve and therefore wracked his brain for something to compliment Link back on.

"You slept really well on the plane," he blurted. _That was not a compliment!_ When he tried to think of good things, his head kept receiving the image of Link's slack, open mouth. He'd stared at it for too long — it'd gotten stuck to the front of his mind just because of the extended exposure. That was how minds worked.

Link gave him a narrow-eyed glance and simply replied with a "yeah". Great success, Rhett.

Rhett tried to reach for an explicative follow-up. "Uhh, I'm not sure what the bed...the sleeping quarters are like in the cabin."

Link chuffed to voice his displeasure, bowing his head down theatrically and giving it a few shakes to really bring the point home.

"I mean, it's a two bedroom! So it's totally fine. I just don't know what the beds are like," Rhett hurried to add. He was lying though — he knew. He'd made sure to rent a cabin that he could see pictures of. He figured Link would find the bunk bed in one of the rooms a little weird, and Rhett didn't want him to know he'd specifically looked for a cabin with one. When the time came, he'd just say it was a crazy coincidence.

"Don't mind where I sleep so long as it's not with you," Link stated.

Back to square one. Rhett felt hot anger simmer at the base of his throat. "We came here to try and be nice to each other, and this is how you want to start the trip?" he spat out, instantly ready for another fight. He was getting sick of feeling like he was the only one trying. Link didn't seem like he even cared to try and fix their relationship. Rhett tried his best to push away the idea that his aggravation was also partly due to Link's words dismissing the plans of sleeping in a bunk bed together, but he didn't really succeed.

"How is saying I don't want to sleep with you insulting? Obviously I don't want to!"

"You don't always have to say it so harshly. Obviously we won't sleep in the same bed."

"Oh yeah? What about that time in New York last year? There was one bed! You ordered the room!"

"It's not like I did it on purpose. The hotel screwed up. Cabins don't screw up. If there's two bedrooms, there's two beds."

"Whatever, man," Link mumbled, effectively ending the argument.

Seeing how the tense set of Link's jaw and his tight grip on the steering wheel continued for the next ten minutes eventually managed to make Rhett think he may have been in the wrong for getting angry so quickly.

"Sorry. I got mad," he gritted out, finally breaking the silence.

"'S okay."

"I, uhh...I was thinking the first thing we need to do is talk. Today."

"Alright."

"We're almost there."

Link gave a small nod.

"You regret agreeing to come?" Rhett asked.

Without hesitation, Link responded, "No." The tiny gesture made Rhett feel instantly lighter.

"Da's good."

***

The cabin was located on the outer edge of a cluster of its kin, a fairly walkable distance from the nearest ski slopes — but not when carrying snowboards. A rental car was a must. There was a small, covered garage attached to the two-story cabin. Rhett had to get out of the car to unlock it with one of the keys given to them at the office they'd dropped by at on the way.

Stepping in through the front door, from the corner of his eye Rhett saw Link looking around appreciatively. It made him feel accomplished. Right next to the front door was a small storage room, most likely for skiing gear. There was a good-sized living room, taking up a large portion of the first floor, flanked by a small kitchen. At the back was a bathroom and a laundry room. The second floor did not cover the entire area of the house, only about two thirds of it, and consisted of nothing but the two bedrooms and second, smaller bathroom. The remaining space was utilized as a balcony.

Rhett didn't go on a tour, though; he'd gone on one online already. Instead he dropped his bags right at the entrance, registering and ignoring Link's huff of disapproval, then walked to the den and flopped right onto the biggest arm chair.

"C'mere," he prompted Link, gesturing at the long couch that the chair was half-facing. It made the arm chair inconvenient for watching television, but perfect for Rhett's purpose.

Link always either followed orders immediately and unconditionally, or then he completely dismissed them. In this case he set his suitcase down in a corner and then walked over, sitting down on the edge of the couch, languidly propping a knee up.

"I get to talk," Rhett explained. "You only get to ask questions."

"Like the rocks?"

"Exactly. The person on this arm chair gets to talk."

"It's a stupidly placed arm chair."

"You already broke the rules," Rhett chastised.

"Sorry, I thought we were still, you know, planning," Link apologized light-heartedly, clearly with no intention of aggravating Rhett. He still did, just a little, because Rhett needed him to take the situation seriously and he wasn't doing so.

"No, we're jumping straight in."

"What do you wanna talk about?"

Rhett had to think, resulting in a moment of silence.

"I'd like for us to do talks like this every night, when we get back home from snowboarding or dinner or whatever. Each one of us would get at least one turn."

"Why this way of talking?"

"I think we don't listen to each other properly anymore, and we jump to conclusions a lot and get mad...this prevents that, because we just get to keep talking. All the way until we get the point across."

"You think it'd help your temper?"

Rhett grimaced. "I think you being nicer would help my temper."

"So I'm supposed to walk on egg shells around you, no friendly banter?"

Rhett had been so very wrong in assuming they couldn't have an argument like this. He had severely underestimated Link. "Maybe it'd be good if we walked on egg shells for a lil' bit. Till we're, till things are fixed."

"But how are we going to fix things exactly?"

"I said I have a plan. I just need you to want to try."

"I do?"

Rhett let the sorry excuse for a question slide. "Let's just...be nice."

"So am I not allowed to say your hair looks stupid right now?"

"That shirt really brings out your eyes," Rhett blurted, because he knew that thorough consideration would keep him from saying it. Coral was sort of a complementary color to blue, wasn't it? Was that shirt coral? Kind of pink, kind of orange. Or was that salmon then?

Link's face went through a complicated set of twitches. "What's this now, Compliment Corner?"

"You still smell nice even after that long night flight," Rhett pressed.

"What?"

Rhett gritted his teeth in trying to keep his expression from betraying his emotions, and searched again for the first compliment that came up in his head. "The, uh, your collarbones look nice?"

Link attempted to reign in his wide smile, but didn't succeed very well, resulting in a weirdly happy-looking frown. Rhett always liked the face the man made when he did that. "Aren't I supposed to be the one asking questions?"

Rhett ignored him. "I like it when you make that face."

Link was reduced to huffing through a scrunched up nose. He was embarrassed.

Rhett decided he had no chance but to plow onwards. He was going to go all in for the next ten days, that's what he'd sworn to himself. He pushed away his own embarrassment and thought of how far simple words could potentially get him with Link. He knew that Link needed affirmation on a regular basis, and Rhett had stopped giving it to him. "I care about you, Link, I love you. You're my best friend, among the five most important people in my life." Rhett didn't want to say the specific rank, though he wasn't sure he even knew. "The brightest man I know, a person that, when I honestly think about it, I swear I couldn't live without." A brother? Rhett was about to add that, but Link interrupted him.

"Can we stop now?" Link pleaded quietly, head bowed.

Rhett blasted up from the arm chair in anger, temper instantly flared because _this man, this_...and then Link was standing, and Rhett thought they'd finally get into a physical fight for the first time, his body rigid and ready. Link smashed into him bodily, grabbing onto him around the waist, hugging him.

Rhett let out a stupid spluttering noise. He lifted his hands to instinctively push Link away, but only got as far as setting them on the man's waist before he thought better of it. Link's face was at the side of his neck. "Let's go rent our boards?" Link whispered, fitting the world that was suddenly a whole lot quieter when blood was no longer rushing in Rhett's ears. Link inched closer and Rhett felt the man's lips moving on the thin skin of his neck, almost at his throat, when he said, "Go for a coffee on the way? It was a long trip."

Rhett's answer was a vaguely affirmative "ungh", because it was the best he could do. He felt placated, but there was still a tender hole somewhere in his chest, the fact that Link hadn't disclosed any of his own thoughts feeding Rhett's uncertainty. Feeling Link's warm breath against his neck was making his skin feel over-sensitive, like the air was twice as heavy as it should be. It made him uncomfortable, but he knew that pushing Link away wasn't what he should do at a moment like this, not when they so badly needed to assure each other that they cared at all. It was difficult to convince himself that it was no longer the right thing to do, years of pushing Link away whenever he got uncomfortably close having grilled the habit into him.

"It's the afternoon, if we drink coffee now it'll mess up our schedules more," Rhett ended up mumbling. It was early morning in LA right then, but almost dinner time in Switzerland.

Link pulled his head up in order to look at Rhett. "Hot chocolate then. I have a weird craving for that right now." He stepped away, giving Rhett's shoulder a solid pat, and said, "Good hug, brother", making fun of Rhett's stiff frame.

***

Link ended up ordering himself a coffee behind Rhett’s back anyway, despite having been the one to get the most amount of sleep. Rhett warned the man that he'd best not keep him up at night as well.

They were only planning on going out to the slopes the next day, but they still bought ten day passes for the lifts because there was a sale on a bundle with a ten day skiing or snowboarding gear rental. Rhett took the last snowboard of his length at the sweat-stinky rental store, clearly not a popular and well-stocked size. It was almost as tall as Link when propped up. Rhett chuckled and kept sliding it in front of Link's disgruntled face to obstruct his view, following the man's head in its comical attempts of escaping by moving from side to side. Link was making semi-coherent high-pitched words of protest in the process.

The young guy helping them pick out their boards smirked, and Rhett started to feel stuffy in his thick winter coat. He quickly moved to pay for the gear. Using the company credit card for such a thing made him feel strange, this being a work-free vacation and all, but it was easier than juggling the expenses between two people. When it came to Mythical Entertainment, what was Link's was his and what was his was Link's. It'd be easier to sort the money situation out at home once all the expenses were clear.

Link asked to go to a nice restaurant for dinner in order to balance out the horrendous meal they'd had on the plane. Rhett had planned on that anyway, so he'd already picked the restaurant. It had more dimmed lights and candles than he'd expected, but the steak was good and Link's eyes looked silver. That was interesting to see. Rhett didn't know they did that.

They were still kind of doing the thing on the drive back to the cabin. It was dark out already, but it was probably the dim, orange street lights that induced the effect. Orange was a complementary color to blue, maybe that was why. And why did Rhett keep thinking about complementary colors today? He needed to get a grip.

Link sang along to the radio softly, turned to a classics station he'd picked on the way out of the airport. Rhett didn't even realize he'd joined him until they pulled over and Link turned off the ignition, silence spreading through the car.

"You haven't booked us into couples' therapy, have you?" Link asked on the way to the door.

"Gosh, no. I thought of it though." Rhett didn't want someone prying into his deeper motivations right in front of Link.

"Me too, yeah."

"Maybe if this doesn't work out."

"I think it will," Link said with a smile in Rhett's direction. Rhett got the urge to tousle his beanie-covered hair, and ended up giving Link a one-handed noogie.

"My turn, yeah?" Link affirmed as he walked into the den and sat himself on the arm chair. Rhett obediently took a seat on the couch.

Link leaned forward, setting his elbows on his thighs and leaning his chin on his knuckles. Rhett's lips twitched when he realized how much that made the situation resemble therapy. Link said, "I appreciate what you've done. I know you have some plan of us...reliving our childhoods or something, and I think that might fix things for a while. But what we actually need to do is talk about why things have...why we've become what we've become. It's not 'cause I forgot what it was like to be with you as kids, having fun, messing around. We have an issue. You think that issue is the way we communicate."

"Yes?"

"I don't. There's something else. I want to, I want us to sort that out. The functions of how we communicate are fine, but something is making us, or one of us, constantly want to make everything into a fight."

"You're saying I'm the one doing it?"

"No, I'm not. I don't know if I do it. The lines of when I get mad for the sake of getting mad and when I get mad just to, just because you're getting mad, they're getting blurred."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Rhett drawled, trying not to make it sound too spiteful, but he couldn't quite control his tone.

"I dunno. I just want you to know that I personally don't think that the way we communicate is the root of this problem. It's a cause. That's all I wanted to say. For now we can keep doing whatever you wanted us to do."

"Are you sure you don't already know what the issue is?" If Link saw an issue besides communication, he had to be _seeing_ it. Rhett wasn't buying this.

"I think it might be a mix of many things. That's what I think we need to use this time to figure out. I don't know how though. We'll just need to talk about, about feelings I guess, when we get angry." Link took a break, but Rhett had no question to ask. "I'm just getting really frustrated, man. I wanna know what's coming in between us but when I try to think about it, I come up empty or then there's a whole lot of insignificant little stuff." Link began to get up. "I think that spending time together like this will help us though. That's why I agreed to this. And if this doesn't work, we're going into therapy. Maybe a professional will figure it out. I'm gonna go unpack." He gave Rhett's shoulder a pat and went to grab his things, advancing towards the stairs.

"Wait!" Rhett shouted after him, scrambling up from the couch. "Which one's getting which room?"

Link turned to look back at him, eyebrow raised. "What, they aren't the same?"

"Yeah, the beds are different. One's got two beds — well basically three. But then again the other _basically_ has two, and the other maybe does have four, with a stretch."

"In the car you said you didn't know what the beds were like," Link reminded him, turning the blood in Rhett's veins steel-rigid for a second. He wasn't sure why he was so affected by getting caught in the small lie — maybe he was feeling guilty for lying when he'd been claiming communication was key.

"Forgot 'bout it," he said comically nonchalantly, not trying very hard to hide the lie. Maybe Link would assume the lie was to protect a part of his secret plan — which it sort of was, because he didn't want Link to know about the bunk beds...thing...before the time came. It wouldn't work right, wouldn't be natural.

Link let out a chuff and said, "Whatever. So you asking which I want?" He walked up the stairs and Rhett followed, not bothering to grab his own bags.

"If it's not the one I want, then yeah," he joked. He'd let Link take whichever he wanted.

Link opened the door on the left, walking straight in. "King size bed, looking good." He suddenly spiraled to face Rhett again, a mix of shock and determination plastered on his face. Determined shock? Shocked determination? There's some new emotions for psychologists to categorize. "If the other room has something like, just kiddy beds or something, don't even think you're not the one getting stuck with it. I don't _care_ that you're taller. You planned this trip."

"It's cool, it has a queen. I'd prefer the king, but I can take it." Then, because he didn't want Link to ask, he added, "It's got a bunk bed too. Probably meant to house a few kids, but they're not kiddy sized."

Link appeared surprised. Rhett kept going, "It was hard to, you know, find a cabin for two that wasn't just...just one bedroom, and I knew you would get upset about that. So this is basically a cabin for a family of five."

"That explains the price," Link noted, smirking easily, no more questions asked.

As soon as Rhett stepped into his bedroom, he began to feel dead tired. He'd hardly slept on the plane, so it was essentially like he'd missed a full night of sleep. He wasn't young enough to do that without consequences anymore. His body felt lethargic ( _Maybe he could use a cleansing colonic?_ he sang in his head) and he decided to be lazy and leave unpacking for the morning. He took off his clothes, getting one of his pointy elbows stuck somewhere in his shirt in the process, and fell into bed. He was lulled to sleep by the sound of Link moving around in the other room, putting his things away.

***

"Rhett? Come on, man, you can't go to sleep this early."

Rhett peered at his friend through squinted eyes. Link was leaning over his bed. Rhett glanced at the time — 10:53 PM — and grumbled, "It's 11 PM, Link. I told you not to drink coffee."

Link shook Rhett's shoulder and claimed that they had to go out. Rhett mumbled something along the lines of "what" before sitting up.

"The lifts run until midnight. We can still go!" Link said excitedly.

"You're not serious. I told you about the coffee, Link! I told you!"

"I slept at least ten hours on the plane too, man, ain't no way I'm falling asleep yet 'cause of that already. Snowboarding for an hour might tire me out and help me sleep."

"You realize we'll be able to actually be there for like thirty minutes, tops?"

"This is a skiing vacation, Rhett! Well, _snowboarding_. Come on, now. If you're quick, we could stay for forty."

Rhett figured this vacation was the time he was going to please his best friend in any way he could, so he got up and dressed himself. Link stuck around, bouncing around the room uncharacteristically, whining about the fact that Rhett hadn't even unpacked, _just went straight to sleep, what is he, eighty?_

Rhett was going to show him just how _eighty_ he was once they got on the slopes and he destroyed Link. How, exactly, he wasn't sure. Speed and grace, he supposed. Or maybe just speed would do the trick. Link was usually the graceful one, but Rhett could undermine the value of that and just focus on speed, leading to him winning. Then when Link felt down, he could tell the man how graceful he was and make him feel better. Was that manipulative? If he really thought about it, he loved few things more than he loved watching Link bashfully (but brightly) smile at compliments he'd been given. Ones that Rhett specifically had given, actually.

They got to the parking lot with fifty minutes to spare, but were then faced with the challenge of where to actually go. The piste map was huge, and were they intermediate or beginners? Link kept saying they were beginners, but they'd snowboarded before! Multiple times! _"It's been like 10 years since then, Rhett."_ Despite Rhett's huffing, they chose a beginners' slope, just to start with. There were intermediates nearby they could switch to if need be.

The lift was a T-Bar. They'd only ever ridden chairs before.

"Is it, uhh, is it easier alone or together?" Link wondered.

There was nobody around. They saw some skiers in the adjacent intermediate slopes, but Rhett figured it made sense that the sort of people that skied in beginners' slopes wouldn't be doing it at 11 PM. Only further proof of the fact that they should've gone to a more difficult slope. "This is for kids," Rhett whined.

"Should I buckle up or not?" Link was walking towards the lift, snowboard under his arm.

The fact that there was no one around that they could copy made things difficult. "Probably not," Rhett suggested. "Just stand on the board."

"Nah, I'll buckle. Otherwise my feet'll just slip, right?" Link got close to the lifts and tied his binds, then awkwardly waddled right to the course of the lift. He grabbed onto an anchor, pulling it towards him in the middle of its ascent. "Shoot, do I, am I supposed to—" He had to let go of the bar because it got too far away before he managed to get on it. He fell backwards on his ass, knees stiffly up due to the snowboard weighing down his feet. Rhett bent in half in laughter.

Link attempted to sway himself up with the snowboard attached to his feet, quite unsuccessfully. "I think two are supposed to ride it," Link got out in between quick breaths. He ended up untying the binds of one foot, propping himself up with it. "I mean, you can't just lean back on that, right? I think you, I think I might've seen before that you put one side between your legs. Then another person gets on the other side."

"Let's try it. I'll just stand on my board though." Rhett moved to the other side of the lift, the T-Bars slowly passing by in between him and Link.

Link left one leg untied and the other free, kicking himself to a good position. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Do this. Then you won't slip off and you can still move around. Gosh, we're stupid."

Rhett did just that because he realized Link was right, and then grabbed onto a lift, dragging it down and in between, wait, which one's legs first? He shoved it in between Link's, the action heating up the nape of his neck, then quickly shuffled closer to hop onto his own side. Link grabbed onto the vertical bar right below Rhett's hand.

Their mismatched heights turned out to be an issue as the lift caught on to their weight and Rhett's side of the upside down T dug into the middle of his thigh rather than sitting right at his crotch like it did for Link. It felt incredibly flimsy, and Rhett kicked with his free leg a couple of times to keep his balance, but they appeared to be getting up the hill just fine. "Shouldn't have picked a beginners'," he moaned again anyway.

As the incline steepened, Rhett's breath caught in his throat because _there was no way this frickin' thin, light little anchor could actually get two heavy, grown men up_ , and his snowboard began to droop to the side. He had to kick it back to the right track, which caused their whole ensemble to rock and Link to call out a riled "Hey!" Somehow they managed to even the lift out and get all the way to the top without falling off, but Rhett's heart was going crazy the whole time and he never took his eyes off of his feet and the snowboard. It solidified that he was a way bigger scaredy-cat now than he had been in college.

Climbing off of the T-Bar at the top proved to be another challenge. It never stopped moving, after all. Link scrambled off it, haphazard kicks somehow managing to keep him balanced. Rhett felt the effects of the sudden lack of weight on the other side of the T, the bar slipping up his thigh and out from between his legs. His hand, forgotten onto the bar, held on long enough for his body to contort to follow its continued ascent. When Rhett realized to let go, he unsurprisingly fell on his back.

At least it just meant the two of them were even. Rhett was actually winning a little, if he had to say. He'd been the second to fall, and he'd gotten the worse arrangement with the lift.

He joined Link, sitting down on the slope next to the guy. They tied their binds and now, despite his unsuccessful efforts down at the bottom, Link took a hearty spring off the ground, smoothly standing up on his board, only taking a few extra jumps to fix his balance.

Rhett _could not get up_. He bent forwards, but could not get a strong enough momentum to bounce up. He rocked back and forth in his efforts and quickly succeeded in feeling a tension in his abs. Not in getting up, though.

Link was laughing, and Rhett retorted that he was just working out his abs. The other man jumped in front of him, somewhat unsteadily, before presenting Rhett his right hand. "I'll pull you up," he said with a grin, and Rhett knew that this _so_ meant that Link had won, but grabbed on anyway and let the man pull him.

Link put a vigorous amount of strength into it, uncaring of his own balance. Rhett had a moment to enjoy standing up before his friend toppled backwards, and Rhett followed. The fall was longer than he'd naturally expect, causing a near second-long burst of panic before he finally hit the sloped ground. Well, he didn't actually hit the ground — he fell on top of Link, their chests colliding. It sounded like the force took Link's breath with it, but Rhett couldn't just quickly scramble off the man in the position they were in.

Once Link regained his breath — and perhaps even a bit before that — he began to giggle uncontrollably. Their hands were still clasped together, buried in between them. Link stayed motionless everywhere except for his head, which thrashed from side to side on the ground with the force of his joy. Rhett put some amount of effort into getting purchase for his right hand to lift himself up, but ended up just burying his face somewhere at Link's neck, his own laughter ridding him of bodily strength. Link's hand was rhythmically clenching his, a search for reassurance, as if checking it was still there.

They remembered how to snowboard well enough, so going down the slope ended up being easy. It was the T-Bar that kept giving them issues. It wasn't until their fourth (or fifth...) lift up that Rhett finally felt comfortable and no longer felt the need to stare at the ground the whole way up.

It turned out he didn't know where to look when the ground wasn't an option — and it wasn't, because Rhett was too cool for it. He looked behind his friend, at the slope, the large lights illuminating the place, the trees, and the faraway mountains hardly visible in the darkness, the snow on them reflecting just enough light. And then he looked at Link, because he was right in front of him — much closer than he'd expected. Link was smiling, teeth out and gums probably freezing, his goggles propped up onto his helmet. His eyes were silver again, despite the clear white lights crawling up the tree line on the sides of the hill. Maybe Rhett knew nothing about complementary colors after all. Link commented on something about Rhett looking up for the first time, but the man just ignored him and stared, drawn in by the proposition that there was something about his friend he wasn't already familiar with. The moment when Link's expression began to turn more complex, gaining small lines of discomfort and bafflement, the lift stilled. It was midnight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr: [thenthekneehits](http://thenthekneehits.tumblr.com/)


	2. Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes thinking about Rhett felt just like watching a zit popping video.

When they got back to the cabin, Rhett climbed up the stairs and straight into his room. Link followed, mouth ajar and ready to say something to prompt his friend to stay up with him, but he wasn't fast enough. He sighed at the sight of the closed bedroom door and headed into the bathroom.

Rhett had gone to sleep without brushing his teeth. _Gross_.

Brushing his teeth like a sane person, if a little late at night, Link thought of how it was still daytime in California. He felt a slight twitch of desire to call his family, but Rhett had been firm — there would be no contacting the families and no checking out the social media. This should be nothing but the two of them for ten days. It was only the first day and Link was already feeling a bit lonely. He wasn't hermit material like Rhett. Earlier that evening, he'd felt piercingly alone as soon as Rhett had disappeared into his room — and fallen asleep, it had turned out. Link had busied himself unpacking, but it'd only helped for so long.

Link just wasn't good with missing out on human interaction. Now there was the problem of sleep to think about as well. He never slept alone. When he was away from home, he'd always be with Rhett — he was with the man now, too, in a way, but not close enough. They didn't tend to share beds or anything (most of the time), but they did always share hotel rooms, where Link could hear the man's breathing, his movements in the sheets, the way he hit his pillow to fluff it. Simple sounds that confirmed there was someone else near.

Link couldn't hear anything from Rhett's bedroom. Ten days and nights of this? Gosh, Link wasn't sure he could take it.

He spit out the toothpaste and grimaced to check his teeth in the mirror, then went into the shower.

Rhett shouldn't have worried so much. This cabin had cost them a lot now, too. He may as well have gotten one with a single bedroom and two beds. This was stupid.

Rhett had said that he'd picked two bedrooms with Link in mind, but maybe he hadn't. Rhett was the one that always needed to keep his distance. He must have just done it for himself. He should know that Link didn't like to sleep alone. This right here was yet another thing that he put onto Link when it was actually all on him. It was aggravating. Link had never once suggested getting separate rooms when they'd traveled together in the past. Rhett, however, had.

Sometimes he really wondered if Rhett was a selfish douche who hid it well.

***

Rhett had gone to get him a breakfast burrito. Link woke up late, having slept fitfully and dissatisfyingly. He smelled food as soon as he opened his bedroom door in the morning.

Rhett wished him good morning as Link descended the stairs in search of the source of the smell. "The whole kitchen is empty. Had to go grab breakfast out," Rhett explained.

Link sat down to the left of Rhett around the dining table, the position always having felt more natural to him than sitting across from each other. His friend was almost done with his own meal, only a short stump lingering on the wooden surface in front of him.

Rhett pushed the untouched, foil-packed burrito in front of Link. "Eat, brother," he prompted.

Link felt like being quiet. He didn't like waking up in the morning, especially not after having slept badly, and he was still feeling sluggish. He could only guess how his messy hair, baggy clothes and sullen face must have contrasted Rhett's already crisp and awake appearance.

Rhett unwrapped Link's burrito for him, then fed it to him. Link chewed obediently and didn't even care to put effort into lifting his arms and grabbing the burrito into his own hands, not if his friend was perfectly willing to feed him.

Rhett smiled and wiped stray sauce off of Link's cheek with his thumb. "Slept badly, baby?" he asked.

Link hummed a positive, not caring that the other man was making fun of him. He felt like being babied, sue him. If somebody wanted to take care of him, he wasn't about to stop them. He liked to be cared for and protected, especially in his weak moments right after waking up in the morning, when he didn't have the energy to pretend to be offended. Rhett may have known and done it on purpose, even. Link still didn't care. It's not like Rhett cared, and it's not like anyone else knew. He didn't act like this in front of Christy. That wouldn't make sense. He was supposed to take care of his wife.

With Rhett, it just happened sometimes. Rhett was, in a way, supposed to take care of Link. That was how Link had come to see it, after decades of proof, and he accepted it.

"Well, you're gonna have to man up and feed yourself now. You brought this on yourself," Rhett chided him, grabbing Link's hand off of the table and setting it around the burrito. "I told you not to drink coffee, and I told you not to go snowboarding so late."

Link hmphed but ate on his own with no further rebellion, energy finally seeping into him.

"What are we doing today?" he inquired as he saw Rhett get up, having finished his respective meal in only a few bites.

Rhett stepped up to the coffee machine, setting it to brew. "Chilling," he tossed as a reply.

Link's face shaped a smile, and happiness flooded him in simple causation, waking him up more. "You have no idea, do you," he chaffed.

"Do too."

"Oh yeah?"

Rhett hummed. "Well, snowboarding. Maybe a drive, see the sights. Scenery."

"Riveting. It's just snow everywhere."

Rhett raised his brows. "Pretty snow, though."

"You wan'o do something that touristy?"

"If you don't want to, then..." Rhett trailed off with a shrug.

Link heard the tiny hint of annoyance in his friend's voice, so he let it go. "Nah, I do. Sounds cool."

"Don't complain just to complain, then," Rhett snapped.

Link sighed. He'd reacted too late, apparently. He'd slowly but surely become bad at reading Rhett. The guy felt unpredictable nowadays.

Rhett turned his back to him, grabbing mugs from the cupboard, snapping the door shut a little harshly after himself.

"Sorry," he gritted, looking down at the mugs on the counter. The poor mugs must have been on the wrong end of a hell of a glare, Link could only guess.

"You apologizin' to the mugs for slamming the door to their home? Rightly so," Link teased.

"I jus' don' like it when you...I mean, _it would be nice_ if you...ugh." Rhett hit the counter with a fist. "Shit."

"Don't swear."

"We're not fucking _home_ , Link." An F-Bomb. Great.

"Don't get aggravated when you can't think of what to say."

"You're one ta' be teachin' me," Rhett grunted. The man was generally the more articulate one, Link could admit that — but he wasn't going to address it right now.

"It's too early in the morning for this," he derailed instead.

"It's 11 AM, Link."

"Still mornin'."

"Why you always gotta be so precise about everything?" Rhett whined, sounding reluctantly fond now.

"If I got a dollar every time you said that to me..."

Rhett poured fresh coffee into both of the mugs, setting the other in front of Link, then seated himself back next to him. He looked across the table, a little down, eyes not really focused, and pouted. He may not have even been aware that he was doing it.

"Thanks," Link said, sipping the coffee. "And I'd love a drive. Sorry for making fun of it. It sounds nice."

Rhett pinched his mouth shut and grunted, and Link knew he'd said the right thing, so he smiled at Rhett, staring at him until the other man finally met his eyes back.

***

"Your knees feel gooey?" Link asked, driving carefully along a turn on the snowy road. His legs were so spent he almost felt a bit scared to drive. And they hadn't even snowboarded for an hour the night before!

"Really gooey," Rhett responded empathetically. As Link was pulling up to the parking lot, he said, "Intermediate. I swear to God, Link."

"Yeah, yeah."

Their slopes had chair lifts this time. Rhett kept snickering and bumping his board against Link's on them, or worse, setting it on top of it, weighing Link's right foot down dangerously. Link had to scramble a bit, afraid of losing his balance, and in doing so he always naturally leaned closer to Rhett's side.

***

There was a café in the middle of a long slope, a wooden cottage nestled on a horizontal plane. The men went to grab some hot chocolates, propping their boards against their designated racks outside of the place. _"You better actually get a hot chocolate this time, Link."_

Link did get a hot chocolate. A hot white chocolate, can you imagine? _Yummy._ Rhett took a moment to once again rave about how he had always thought that Link hated white chocolate, until he'd been corrected just a while back.

Rhett's eyes shone when he spoke so heatedly, and he kept giving Link forbearing but fond looks as the man gulped down his hot white chocolate. Link had no idea what he was thinking about.

Now Rhett wouldn't stop looking at him, actually. He'd done the same thing the night before, after that weird moment at the slopes that Link felt weird about. Just, weird all around. Link felt uncomfortable when he thought about what had happened, and it's not like anything _had_ happened. Rhett's eyes had...they'd turned weird. _Weird all around_ , that's what Link had said.

They'd been fiery. When Link reminisced the moment, he almost felt like cringing, or something akin to that, and yet for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about it. It was like watching a zit popping video. You couldn't stop even though you kind of wanted to; something drew you in.

Link could tell that Rhett was staring at him right then, too, eyes patiently waiting for Link's to meet them. Link lowered his head and dramatically slurped on his drink instead. The two of them usually had a sense of when to look at each other. Link knew whenever Rhett needed him to look at him, and Rhett always looked at Link when the other man needed it. It was a connection that many people probably developed after spending so many years together with someone. Link just felt like ignoring it today. There had been enough weirdness.

"Link," Rhett called.

"Yeah?" Link asked of his cup.

He saw Rhett's hand twitch on the table, and couldn't help smirking a bit.

"It's started snowing outside," Rhett noted.

Link lifted his head while turning it, eyes on the window the whole time. "Oh, cool."

Suddenly Rhett cried out, "Shit! My nose is bleeding!"

"No, it's not," Link said easily, eyes never leaving the pearly white landscape.

"Link."

"Link."

"Link. Link."

" _Link_."

"Why aren't you looking at me?" Rhett's voice had switched to his kicked puppy impersonation.

"The scenery is astoundingly better from the window," Link said.

"Ha, ha."

Rhett grabbed onto Link's shoulder and shoved it forward once, gaining no results, then took a hold of his face and forcibly turned it to him. He squished Link's jaw and cheeks so that his mouth flopped open into what must have been a ridiculous kissy face.

Their eyes met, and Rhett's turned warm as he smiled, the man soon beginning to chuckle at the sight of Link. "Oh, man, you have so much cheek," he marveled as he massaged his fingers into the skin, moving it around.

Link blew a raspberry, dribbling all over the offensive hand on his face.

Rhett instantly drew back, bodily leaning away from Link and shrieking, "Eww!"

"That's what'chu get, man," Link cackled.

For once, Rhett didn't get mad, but instead laughed along, and Link gingerly rewarded him by leaning against him, shoulders rubbing together.

***

Rhett _was_ mad, however, a couple of hours later. It was past 3 PM and all they'd eaten so far that day were the burritos — plus, the amount of exercise they'd done... Link was hungry too.

Rhett grumbled the whole drive, face pinched and eyes harsh. When Link asked him what he wanted to eat, he snapped that he didn't care, so Link parked near the first open restaurant he saw.

It was late for lunch and early for dinner, so the place wasn't too full. Despite that, it took ages for them to get their meals. Rhett was untalkative throughout. His sour mood rubbed off on Link, who sucked it into himself like a sponge in dirty water.

After about a half an hour, Rhett slammed his hand on a surface for the second time that day. "Stop tapping," he hissed. Link stilled his fingers, which had leisurely tapped a beat with little thinking from the man himself.

A little while later, Rhett told him to stop clicking his tongue.

When it had been nearly an hour, with no sight of food — of their food, anyway — Link began to consider calling up the waiter to ask for an update on the situation. As he subtly craned his neck, looking around for a stray employee to latch onto, Rhett kicked his shin.

"Ow!" Link screeched.

"Frickin' stop movin' around! You're wiggling your leg and it's annoying the crap outta me," Rhett barked, his voice raised.

Link looked at his friend in shock. "The _hell_ , Rhett?"

"Why you gotta be constantly moving?"

"I'm just getting impatient! That's a natural response!"

"What are you, a kid? Just _stop_."

_"Let's try to be nicer to each other,"_ Link's ass. He got up, his chair screeching along the floor, grabbed his coat, and left.

"LINK!" he heard Rhett bellow.

Link wasn't about to get in the car and drive off. Neither of them would be able to walk back to the cabin. Still, he needed to cool off, so he walked out of the restaurant and rounded the first corner, leaning against the windowless wall of the building in the alleyway.

Rhett was the one who did it. Not Link. It was Rhett. Rhett got annoyed. Rhett got mad. Rhett got angry. Rhett couldn't take jokes. Rhett insulted him, Rhett shoved him around.

Link just tried to defend himself, and soon as he did, they'd slipped off the precipice and the fight wouldn't _end_. But Rhett always started it. Always. In the past Link had used to be able to read what would make the man angry, and also what would calm him back down. Now he had no clue. None. Rhett exploded over things that made no sense, but at the same time not over _everything_. There had to be a key to it. He also acted no different around his family, far as Link had seen. It was only Link he got mad at.

At home it had been so easy to follow Rhett's example, to scream back with his throat burning, but it wasn't anymore. They weren't fighting about work at all now, they just fought about how Link sucked at everything he did and could never satisfy Rhett. Link no longer felt permitted to argue, and he no longer had the energy for it, Rhett's words wringing him dry and frail.

He felt a lot more worthless than he had ever thought he could feel because of his best friend.

It wasn't like any of it was big. They were all small things. _Don't do this, don't do that, why didn't you do this, why did you do that?_ Rhett had always made his opinions clear, that was nothing new — what was new was the amount of negative opinions, and most importantly, the utter lack of positive ones.

Link was used to positive affirmation. Rhett had used to give bucket loads of just that to him, telling him how well he did something, how great he was at another thing...

Link lay his head against the red tile wall, the rough bricks harsh on the skin of his scalp.

Rhett _had_ complimented him the day before. On his...his smell, and his shirt and his, gosh, his collarbones. What was up with that?

Link had been too embarrassed to think about it when it had happened, pushing it right out of his mind. Now, too, he got an uncontrollable urge to hide his face in his hands, so that's what he did, sighing into the small space left for his breath.

He still didn't want to think about it. The longer he did, the more wrong it began to appear. Collarbones. Friends...guys... _Rhett_ , Rhett shouldn't say things like that.

He hadn't joked, either. He hadn't. It had made Link happy, too. Embarrassed, yes, but also happy. It must have been over getting complimented at all, however, not over the specific compliments.

It's not like Rhett never complimented him on his looks. He had, a few times. The comment on Link's shirt had been normal enough for the guy. But smell? Collarbones. _Collarbones_. Link grabbed onto the one on his left shoulder, feeling his heart pumping underneath his palm. They were pointy bones, he knew that.

_It was something you should compliment a girl on._ That was what made Link uncomfortable. It wasn't how Rhett normally complimented him, and it wasn't how he wanted to be complimented by Rhett.

The inside of his stomach began to feel swirly and his throat tight. He felt sick, his empty, hungry stomach suddenly making itself vividly known. He hunched over a bit.

"Link!"

"Link, come on!"

He didn't feel like eating anymore. He kind of felt like throwing up. He needed to sit down, so he slid down the wall and lay his behind on the snowy ground. He was wearing ski pants anyway. His ears began to feel cold, so he rummaged his coat pocket for his beanie and shoved it on his head.

Rhett passed by the alleyway once, then a moment later again, this time spotting Link. He called his name and jogged up to him.

He commented on Link sitting on the ground, so Link told him that he just felt sick. He could tell that Rhett was about to start pawing at him, perhaps shove his shoulder and lift him up, so he got up on his feet before there was time for that to happen.

"Sorry," Rhett apologized again. "I was just feeling grumpy 'cause I'm hungry."

"You _always_ feel grumpy," Link got out softly. "Hunger's not an excuse. Your blood sugar's low, so what, you can't just do whatever you want to the people around you 'cause of it."

"You're right. Sorry."

"And what the _hell_ do you think you...that you're allowed to ask me to come on this freaking trip with you, and be nice to you, and what, let you treat me like...and then I'm not allowed to say a single bad thing back? Why is it that only you get to be a jerk? How about I tell you what annoys me, huh?" But Link couldn't think of anything good enough, and it intensified his frustrated anger. He growled and said, "You keep getting so _angry_!"

"Link. I won't anymore."

Link huffed in disbelief. "Yeah, right." Then, as Rhett began to open his mouth, he added, "I was shaking my knee a little! What is wrong with you?!"

"I just had a lot of things on my mind, and I was getting mad at those things. I took it out on you, because I'm just used to doing that. I'll stop. I won't do it."

"It's okay to get _angry_ , you just...you can't act...you need to..."

"I know. Link." Rhett put his hand on Link's shoulder, then added, "Let's go in, 'kay? We can't dine and dash. Well, order and dash."

Link felt stupid and tiny as Rhett led him back.

***

The tension between them didn't manage to dissipate during the meal. Link's patience was stretched into a thin, taut thread, and he felt like Rhett's temper was at that point all the time now, the knowledge of which kept Link on edge.

Once he finished eating, Link became exhausted, and all his anger faded like a dust cloud in still air. He just wanted to go home and take a nap. He said so to Rhett, who without prompting took the driver's seat and allowed Link to zone out for the duration of the drive back to the cabin.

Once there, Link trudged up the four stairs to the house, did _not_ feel like going through the same thing around ten-fold to get into his bedroom, and instead pulled his outerwear right off, dropped onto the couch in the living room, and fell asleep almost instantly.

***

When he woke up, it was dark.

Rhett was sitting on the couch now, Link's feet on his lap, watching the television with the sounds low. One of his hands was on the arm of the couch, the other on Link's ankle. The skin there began to heat up and itch, so Link moved the foot a bit, but didn't withdraw his feet from Rhett's lap. The hand was lifted off.

His friend turned to look at him, realizing he was awake, and asked how he was feeling.

"Okay...bit tired. 'Time is it?" Link mumbled.

"It's seven PM."

"Oh. I slept a while." The quality of his sleep had been considerably better than it had been the night before.

"Yeah," Rhett whispered.

"Been sleeping so much," Link noted with a bit more liveliness in his tone. "On the plane, last night, now a nap..."

"Don't want to face the waking world?"

Was Rhett implying something? Link lowered his brows. "I do. It's nice to hang out with you."

Judging by the small smile now on Rhett's face, he had indeed implied what Link had thought he had.

Rhett lay his hand on Link's shin. "I sat here when your legs were curled up and there was space. Then a couple minutes later you almost kicked me in the face."

"You probably deserved it. Were you feeling me up?" Where did that come from? Gosh, Link felt sleep-fuzzy still.

Rhett's eyebrows rose high and his smile widened. "Maybe I was," he said, then let his hand travel up Link's leg.

Link kicked the limb, spazzing out, and Rhett laughed, now grabbing on tightly to the space just above Link's knee. He bent over, reaching with his free hand to poke at the sleepy one's ribs. Link broke out in giggles at the tickle.

Link kicked Rhett in the gut with his unrestrained leg, halting the attack on his person. "Stop!" he wailed breathlessly.

"Feel awake now?"

Link smiled back at his friend and nodded. "Wanna go for that drive?" he asked.

"It's pretty dark," Rhett stalled.

"We can still go!"

Rhett laughed and noted how much that line reminded him of the night before. "Your sleep schedule is the thing that gets to decide our plans, apparently..."

As Link began to scramble up, Rhett stopped him with a "hey, hey". He looked into his friend's eyes and asked, "You wanna talk to me first? Before we go?"

Link didn't really feel like talking. They'd talked things through, sort of. Well, even if they hadn't, Link's anger was gone now.

"Think it'd be good," Rhett pressed.

Link obediently sat on the arm chair. "Dun' really have anything to say," he confessed.

"What if you tried to say what you said to me before?"

"I don't want to. Said it well enough."

"Do you feel like I'm the reason? Why we're like this."

"What's this become now, an interrogation?" Link paused as he considered whether to be truthful. "Yeah. You get pissed constantly. I don't."

Rhett bit his lip. "Do you know why I do?"

Link perked up. "No," he said. Would Rhett finally tell him?

Link could tell that Rhett was struggling to voice his thoughts in a question, and was about to tell him he didn't need to when he said, "What if I don't know either?"

A sigh. "Then we'll figure it out, I guess. Midlife crisis?"

Rhett snorted.

"I don't wanna talk anymore," Link announced.

"This is it for your chance though! You don't get two goes," the other man warned him, but Link felt like he'd said plenty.

***

"It's too dark to see much o' the scenery," Link griped, despite the fact that they were still in town and there were streetlights aplenty. Nothing wrong with complaining in advance. He could see that the mountains were dark.

"You demanded a nap. You're like a baby." _Baby, kid, baby._ Link preferred baby, hands down.

"Hey, it's a vacation. I'm gonna take a nap _every_ day. I'm warnin' ya."

"I'll take one with you tomorrow. Now I'm the one feelin' kinda tired."

"You want me to drive?"

"Nah."

Rhett drove the car out of town and onto a road that appeared to be climbing up along the mountains, judging by the trail of lights. "Know where you're going?" Link asked.

Rhett shot him a self-satisfied look and a smirk. "Not a clue." Then he digged out his phone and began to swipe on it.

"Shouldn't use your phone while you're driving, man."

Rhett slotted his phone onto the dock, gave it a final tap, and Queen's Body Language began to blast through the car stereo. He then turned the volume even higher.

Giggles erupted out of Link as his mouth stretched into a wide open grin.

"Give me...body..." they both sang. "Give me...your body!"

"Body language," Link growled low, biting his lip and scrunching his nose with a wiggle of his head.

Link sang through the whole thing with gusto, loving the feel of hitting the high notes, his shoulders swinging along to the music, the rest of his body unfortunately too attached to the seat to move the way he wanted it to. Rhett just focused on driving, but with a smile stuck on his face.

_Playlist: Fake 90's Radio_ was filled with hits from the 80's and 90's. Rhett drove them around the town limits and the bases of the mountains, and they sang, Link with his heart out, occasionally losing his breath. The scenery wasn't bad. They couldn't see far out very well, but the illuminated town beneath them was beautiful. Most of the roads they took were quite empty, not leading anywhere awfully important, and the woods lining them didn't care how loudly their music was playing.

When the growling of their stomachs began to cut into the rhythm of the music, Rhett steered the car back towards the town. Link felt elated, his hunger exciting him this time rather than sickening him. He'd get to eat! Eating was great.

He had pasta, and it was _amazing_. "The Swiss should be as well-known for their cooking as the French!" he told the waiter that came to fetch their empty plates.

After eating his full, the pasta sitting warmly at his gut, Link had all the energy in the world. He skipped up the few stairs to the cabin, then turned and walked the hallway backwards. "I feel like dancing," he told Rhett, whose mouth fell into a small O, eyes happy and open, high-set brows teasing Link. It was a silent "oh?"

"Yeah," Link replied, body already moving to a beat in his head. "Put your music back on."

Rhett set the volume on his phone on full and lay the device on the coffee table. The sound quality from the tinny speakers could have been better, having nothing on the loud bass of the car stereos, but Link didn't really care.

He danced like an idiot, knowing nobody would see. Well, Rhett may have caught a few glimpses and laughed at him, but that didn't matter — and it's not like the man was focusing on Link's dancing, instead busying himself with something in the kitchen.

Twirling around the living room, shaking what he'd got, sniggering whenever he messed up the lyrics in his scattered singing, eventually Link began to feel lonely and pranced up to Rhett.

"No, man, no," Rhett whined, holding up his palms.

"Come on!" Link pleaded, shimmying low, eyes becoming level with Rhett's belly.

Rhett's hands fidgeted in the air with sudden jerks, like his body wasn't in his control, so Link raised a brow and asked, "Jazz hands?"

"Yeah, there's my contribution," Rhett said, making actual jazz hands now.

Link huffed and retreated, telling his friend that it was his loss before continuing to dance.

When he got down on the floor and did a lil' Beyoncé action, Rhett snorted and told him it was enough, grabbed the phone and turned off the music, bid Link good night and went upstairs.

Link sat down on the couch, winded, and then checked his phone. 10:21 PM. "What about your talk?" he shouted at the ceiling.

"Be down in a bit," came the responding holler.

Link slouched and wiped sweat off his brow. Dancing was a workout. He'd thrown his sweater off somewhere in the middle of it all, but his remaining t-shirt was plastered to him with sweat. He lifted it off his chest and fanned it.

Rhett appeared a moment later, clad in soft pants and a sweatshirt. He seated himself on the arm chair and was quiet for a few seconds. He then proceeded to tell the story of how his morning had gone before Link had woken up, how the guy working at the burrito place had recognized him and _told him that he looked fatter in real life_. Link laughed his ass off. "Can't go there again," Rhett lamented. "It was just all the...the coat's really thick!"

Link was confused as to why Rhett chose to use his talk to tell him a simple story he could've told at any time, but decided against asking about it. Maybe it was to stay even — Link hadn't stayed on the arm chair for long himself.

Link began to feel cold after some time, his slightly damp shirt now cool on his skin and doing more bad than good. He saw no sign of his sweater anywhere near. Where had he tossed that thing? He nestled himself into a ball against the corner of the couch.

"...So I walk outta there. Why you shivering?" Rhett asked suddenly.

"Can you tell I'm wearing a t-shirt?" Rhett's sweatshirt looked thick and soft, no wonder he wouldn't understand.

"May as well go to sleep," Rhett said as he got up. He looked big from Link's perspective low on the couch. His belly looked soft. Not fat though.

"You're not fat at all," Link commented. Just soft.

"Thanks, Link," Rhett replied softly. His hair looked soft too, the man having forgone the pomade that day for fear of helmet hair. Link hadn't really looked earlier, even though it wasn't often he saw his friend with his hair down — only when they stayed at a hotel together, and even then it was just the occasional glimpse in the morning when the man came out of the bathroom after his shower, only a towel on his hips, searching for his clothes, and Link wasn't supposed to look very much in those moments.

"Should we hug again?" Link suggested. Rhett looked warm and soft, calling him like a nice bed. Comfortable.

Rhett huffed gently and told him no. Link got up and grabbed onto him anyway. "Physical affection is important too," he said. "We should have one hug a day. Remember that thing about the hormones?" Hugs released some hormones that promoted your mental and physical health.

Rhett gathered him in his arms this time, unlike the day before when he'd tried his best to impersonate a tree trunk. "Oxytocin. Love hormone," he clarified.

Link sniggered.

Rhett continued, "But that guy said eight hugs a day. I can't handle eight hugs a day, man."

"So you'll risk my health for your comfort?"

"Na'...well..."

"I said one, anyway. You can do one. It feel that bad?"

"I keep wanting to push you off," Rhett confessed.

"Wow. Talk about rude," Link said, but only grabbed onto his friend's shoulders tighter.

"But it doesn't feel...it doesn't feel bad, I don't think. I just feel uncomfortable. You know how it is."

"No, Rhett, I don't know. You always say that, but I don't actually understand it. I like hugs."

Rhett made a frustrated grunt, then ripped Link's arms off of his shoulders and stepped back.

"You do like hugs sometimes," Link pressed. "I know you do."

"If I'm not thinking about it and it just happens, then it tends to be okay, I think."

"I'll just surprise you, then," Link threatened with a smile. Rhett slapped his shoulder and told him to go to sleep.

Link fell asleep easily enough that night, but he still didn’t feel comfortable in his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The groundwork has been laid now, next chapter stuff starts happenin'!
> 
> My tumblr: [thenthekneehits](http://thenthekneehits.tumblr.com/)


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